Turmeric powder
Golden orange, fading to a muted gold. Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners primary source
Opens the calculator’s starter recipe, 1000 g of oils, with this additive at the dose it fills in, ready to change.
What it is
Ground turmeric, the kitchen spice. Its pigment, curcumin, turns red in alkali.
USDA FoodData Central primary source, Curcumin and pH primary source
How much
- 0.5 tsp per pound of oils filled in Lovin Soap supplier or guide
- up to 0.75 tsp per pound of soap (from the source’s dispersion: a teaspoon of powder in a tablespoon of liquid) Bramble Berry supplier or guide
- 1 tbsp per pound of oils (from a published recipe) Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners primary source
- 0.52–2.06 tbsp per pound of oils (from a published recipe that adds it to one part of the batch: the lower figure over the whole batch, the higher within that part) Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners primary source
- 0.25–1 tsp per pound of soap (the source gives it for a batch of stated size, worked out here per pound) Cavitch, The Natural Soap Book primary source
- 0.27–1.07 tsp per pound of oils (the source gives it for a batch of stated size, worked out here per pound) Letcavage & Buck, Basic Soap Making primary source
The calculator fills in 0.5 tsp per pound of oils: 3.3 g for the 1000 g of oils in its starter recipe.
When and how
- Usually: at light trace.
- Also used: into the oils.
- Mix it first with a little of the recipe’s oil, about a teaspoon of powder to a tablespoon of oil, so it spreads without specks.
Lovin Soap supplier or guide
What it does to the recipe
- It changes neither the lye nor the water: it is only weight in the bar.
Worth knowing
- Soap’s alkali turns it from yellow to orange or red-brown. Curcumin and pH primary source
- Stirred in dry, it leaves specks: mix it with a little oil or water first. Lovin Soap supplier or guide
- Caution: Too much can stain skin and washcloths. Wholesale Supplies Plus supplier or guide
- Its colour fades with light and time. Lovin Soap supplier or guide
- In the EU soap is a cosmetic, and may be coloured only with the colourants in Annex IV of the Cosmetics Regulation. In the US the colour additives allowed in cosmetics do not include this one; a true soap sold as soap alone is not a cosmetic there. Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009; 21 CFR 73 primary source
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 3 g
- 1 tbsp ≈ 9.4 g
- 1 cup ≈ 150 g
USDA FoodData Central primary source
INCI name
Curcuma Longa Root Powder
- CAS number
- 84775-52-0
- EC number
- 283-882-1
Recipes that use it
Guides that discuss it
Sources
Kelly Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners (Althea Press, 2017), chapter 4: "I prefer to use white kaolin in small amounts for a silky soap, as too much will make soap slimy"; turmeric, "when it is added as a powder at trace it will give your soap a strong golden-orange color that will fade significantly after curing to a pretty but more muted gold".
Lovin Soap, spice and herbal powders at trace: "1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder per pound of oils"; "If you don’t want a speckled look use an oil infusion."
Bramble Berry, turmeric: 1 teaspoon dispersed in 1 tablespoon of oil, "up to 1 tablespoon of color per pound of soap".
Kelly Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners (Althea Press, 2017): "Replacing 25 percent of the water with juice gives the bar a more golden color without browning or causing sugar difficulties"; most juices "turn a dark color within the soap, typically brown"; juices frozen "to a slush" before the lye; "when adding purées, always remove the same weight in water"; 2 ounces of puréed strawberries at light trace for 33 oz of oils, all of it in half of the batch, where "the sugars from the purée can cause this soap to possibly overheat"; "Beet root powder starts off a pretty, bright pink, but when added to soap, it turns brown"; "most herbs turn brown when added at trace. If you want to avoid this, add them to the top of your soap right before it sets"; "Make sure your herbs are very dry before adding them to the soap, as moisture left within herbs can bleed into the soap over time, leaving a brown halo". "Green can be made with spirulina, comfrey leaf, and parsley leaf". Activated charcoal: "Add 1 teaspoon per pound of soap". Recipes, per 31–35 oz of oils: "2 tablespoons ground turmeric" blended into the whole batch (32 oz), and "3 teaspoons ground turmeric" in one of four equal parts (31 oz); "2 teaspoons woad powder" and "1 tablespoon white kaolin clay", each in one of three equal parts (34 oz); 1 tablespoon of dried nettle leaf, or 2 tablespoons; 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon; 1 tablespoon of dried peppermint flakes, "plus more to sprinkle on top"; 1 tablespoon of steeped chamomile flowers at light trace and 2 on top; comfrey, "1 heaping tablespoon comfrey leaf powder" infused in 8 ounces of olive oil, 3 ounces of that oil in the recipe.
Susan Miller Cavitch, The Natural Soap Book (Storey Publishing, 1995), chapter 5, pp. 53–54: "Powdered cinnamon is a favorite, but try cloves, nutmeg, and allspice as well. The soaps they produce are speckled and range anywhere from a caramel color to a dark chocolate. Curry powder and turmeric yield shades of yellow and peach"; "Cayenne pepper and paprika create beautiful, salmon-colored soaps"; "first beat it into a small amount of the soap mixture or into a tablespoon of avocado or olive oil"; "Experiment with the desired degree of color, from 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of spice up to ¼ cup (59 ml). If you increase the amount up to ½ cup (118 ml) for a 12-pound (5.45 kg) batch of soap, you run the risk of spicy lathers and a heavy-duty cleanup job." Her batches are 12 pounds, so 1 tablespoon to ¼ cup is 0.25–1 teaspoon per pound of soap.
Elizabeth Letcavage and Patsy Buck, Basic Soap Making (Stackpole Books, 2009), chapter 3: "canned coconut milk is usable for only a few days, and it must be refrigerated"; botanical colourants, "start by using ¼ teaspoon per basic soap recipe batch", and three bars coloured with "¼ teaspoon, ½ teaspoon, and 1 full teaspoon of turmeric to a basic soap recipe"; alkanet "produces shades of pink, blue, and purple, depending on the amount used, types of oil used, and the alkalinity of the soap". The Basic Four-Oil Soap Recipe (chapter 2) has 15 oz of oils.
Wholesale Supplies Plus, turmeric powder: "Too much of this additive may stain the skin!"
Lovin Soap, colouring soap: pigments "color lather if too much is used"; natural colourants "do tend to fade".
EU: Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Article 14(1)(c), a product may contain as colourants only those in Annex IV. US: 21 CFR Part 73 Subpart C lists the colour additives for cosmetics, and turmeric, paprika and spirulina are listed for food only; under 21 CFR 701.20 a true soap, sold only as soap, is not a cosmetic.
USDA FoodData Central, food 172231: Spices, turmeric, ground.